PITTSBURGH, February 28, 2019 — An all-glass façade featuring Solarban^® 60 solar control low-emissivity (low-e) glass by Vitro Architectural Glass that was custom-fabricated to match opaque metal panels is a major component of Vulcan Block 45, part of Amazon’s downtown Seattle headquarters expansion project.

Located in the South Lake Union neighborhood and designed by architecture firm NBBJ, the 13-story, 317,000-square-foot office building is clad with a metal panel and stone veneer finishes over prefabricated metal stud panels. Hartung Glass Industries, Seattle, a member of the Vitro Certified^® Network, fabricated monolithic glass cladding on the exterior, custom-matching the opaque solid frit print of the metal to conceal the hardware.

Garth Tait, Sales & Technical Support Specialist for Hartung Glass Industries, said that “from a distance, the building looks like it is finished with traditional glass-and-aluminum cladding, but it is really an all-glass façade.”

All New Glass of Auburn, Washington, was the glazing contractor.

With a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.39, Solarban^® 60 glass blocks 66 percent of the total solar energy while allowing 70 percent of visible light to pass through. This combination produces an excellent light to solar gain (LSG) ratio of 1.79.

Vulcan Block 45 is the third Amazon building occupying three blocks of South Lake Union. The facility includes private and open offices, conference rooms and break areas, reception and interview rooms, training and usability labs, and a podcast room.

The building’s elongated shape allowed construction crews to use a pair of cranes for assembly, resulting in an average of one new floor built every two days—twice the pace of a single-crane approach.

To learn more about Solarban^® 60 glass and the rest of Vitro Glass’s full line of architectural glasses, visit www.vitroglazings.com or call 1-855-VTRO-GLS (887-6457).

About Vitro Architectural Glass

Vitro Architectural Glass, part of Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: VITROA), is the largest glass producer in the Western Hemisphere, manufacturing a range of industry-leading, energy-efficient, high-performance products such as Solarban^®, Sungate^® and Starphire Ultra-Clear^® glasses. Committed to continually raising the industry standard for sustainability, Vitro was the first U.S. glass manufacturer to have its complete collection of architectural glass products earn Cradle to Cradle Certified^® status and the first North American manufacturer to publish third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for flat glass and processed glass products. Additionally, as of April 2024, all Vitro architectural glass products meet the Top 20% Low Embodied Carbon (LEC) material Global Warming Potential (GWP) threshold the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) established pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and related guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Vitro operates seven glass production facilities across North America, four residential glass fabrication plants in Canada and one of the world’s largest glass research and development facilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit VitroGlazings.com.

Media Contact:
Robert J. Struble
Vitro Architectural Glass
412-820-8138
rstruble@vitro.com
www.vitroglazings.com